Warmth
by Leesa Perrie
Summary: Set in Season Two. McKay is lost and cold and alone...


**Warmth **

**By Leesa Perrie**

Snow. Cold and wet and miserable. One of the many reasons for leaving Canada. Though Russia was worse. At least the food was edible in Canada.

He shivered. You'd think with all the layers he had on, and the military snow gear, he'd be nice and warm. Wrong. This place was cold, cold, cold. Colder than Antarctica. Huh, another cold place he'd found himself. Maybe it was his fate, to end up in cold, lonely places. And to die from hypothermia. Maybe someone would find him a few hundred years from now, a human Popsicle waiting for some future archaeologist to find and study. A scientific curiosity.

His fingers and toes were numb, and his nose. That couldn't be good. How long before frostbite set in? It probably didn't matter, he'd be dead from the cold before his extremities started to fall off. He hoped.

He looked up at the crevasse he had fallen down. The hole that had opened up under his feet had sealed over. Waiting for the next victim. The next idiot to run without looking. Not that he would have known the ice was thin there. That wasn't the sort of thing he'd bothered to learn; how to look out for ice traps. And he was too busy running from the unfriendly locals anyway.

Who would have thought there would be people living here? Trust their luck to run into some Pegasus version of the Inuit on Earth, though he didn't think they would have attacked his team for no reason, with no warning. Not like these people.

He'd got separated from the others during the fighting. You'd think it would be impossible to get lost, wouldn't you? But there was ice hills and mountains all around the place. And the blizzard that started as they ran towards the gate hadn't helped any. He could only hope Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon had made it to the gate. Made it back to Atlantis.

He knew they'd send a search team, but he didn't think much of his chances of being found. Especially now the hole he'd fallen through had iced over. And the blizzard would have obliterated his tracks. And there was something in the ice that affected the life signs detectors, and the radios. They'd soon worked that out after arriving.

It wasn't even like they'd managed to find the source of the energy readings the MALP had picked up. They had been heading in that direction when they had been attacked.

They should have brought a jumper. But there was a wall of ice just in front of the gate, and they didn't think the jumper could fly through it without damage. It may just be water, except that it wasn't, otherwise it wouldn't affect their radios and such like, but ice could be damn solid in these sorts of conditions.

He hadn't even wanted to come. Let some other poor saps come instead. Even the possibility of finding a ZPM had paled when he'd seen the weather conditions. Let someone else have that glory. Especially as he didn't think there was a ZPM here, or if there was, it was severely depleted. The energy signal wasn't very strong. But, no, Sheppard had insisted they check it out.

So long as he was shivering, that was good. When he stopped shivering, that's when things would get bad. When hypothermia would really set in. So, the shivering was good. The chattering of his teeth was also good.

If only it wasn't so cold. He supposed, it wasn't really a crevasse. Well, the first bit was, but it had opened into an underground cavern. An ice cave. He'd tried to climb back up, but he didn't have the right equipment. Couldn't get any foot or handholds in the smooth ice wall. Too smooth, surely? But what did he know about ice caves? Volcanoes, yes. Ice caves, no.

At least there was light. An eerie light, but better than dark. And the ice cave was quite big really. No need for his claustrophobia to kick in. But his watch had been broken in the fall, and he couldn't tell how long he had been here. It felt like hours, but he knew it could be less. Or more.

He really didn't want to die. Especially all alone. Though he guessed that would be fitting. He'd lived most of his life as a loner, a misfit. The geek in the classroom who was smarter than everyone else. The irritating scientist who was rarely wrong. But, oh boy, when he was wrong…well, a large part of a solar system in this galaxy showed how spectacular his being wrong could be.

Or when Carter got hurt that time.

So, he guessed, it was really quite fitting that he'd die alone. The perfect end to a perfect life. Not.

He was getting colder. But he knew that feeling warm was a bad sign. Unless, of course, he was rescued. Then it would be different, but right now, getting warmer was a bad sign. So getting colder, that was okay. As was the shivering. A sign he wasn't in the latter stages of hypothermia. Good signs. Really…

…Damn, what was that? It felt like ice falling on him. He opened his eyes, struggling against the ice that had formed around them. He hadn't realised he'd closed his eyes. Had he drifted off for a bit? He suspected as much. And, oh no, no, no, he wasn't shivering anymore. That was bad. He knew that was very bad. Not a good sign at all.

More ice fell, and he could hear sounds from above him. Turning his head upwards, and what an effort that was, he saw more ice falling. And a hole was appearing in the ice above him. Rescue? He wasn't sure. He watched, feeling numb, as the ice continued to fall and the hole continued to get bigger. Then, after a pause, there was movement above him. A rope. Two blobs, people he realised, coming down the hole.

They'd found him! Must have found a way to get past whatever was affecting the equipment. Probably had Zelenka to thank for that.

As the people got closer he recognised two marines from Atlantis. That is, he knew he'd seen them about, but he didn't know their names. They came to a stop in front of him.

"Dr McKay? Are you alright?"

He tried to answer, but his mouth wouldn't cooperate. He closed his eyes again, and drifted. He heard voices, but couldn't make out what was being said. And then people were moving him. He opened his eyes again. A harness of some kind was being placed around him. It was strange, he couldn't feel his limbs. He felt detached. And then he was travelling upwards.

More hands, pulling him onto the surface. Strapping him onto a stretcher. More voices, words. He let himself fall into the darkness…

…And awoke to bright lights and warmth. Wonderful, blessed, beautiful warmth. He knew he was home. Safe. Dry. Warm, warm, warm. Oh, how wonderfully warm.

And then pain. From muscles that had been shivering for too long. From his extremities as they warmed. From the bruises he had sustained when falling into the ice cave. From a headache pounding behind his eyes. He groaned, closing his eyes, and wishing the pain away. But knowing the pain was a good sign, as it meant he was alive. And warm. And not alone anymore. He was home.

And he was warm.

The End


End file.
